Pixar Running Out of Objects to Make Movies About

With the release of the movie “Cars” this past weekend, Pixar Inc., the computer animation company behind a string of Hollywood blockbusters, is creatively running on fumes. Along with its competitors, Pixar has quite simply run out of stuff to make characters out of.

“We figured this would happen sooner or later,” said John Lasseter, the company’s chief creative officer. “I mean, there’s only so much stuff you can make a story from. The computer animation industry has already done toys (twice), robots, fish (twice), automobiles, superheroes, zoo animals (twice), monsters, bugs (twice). What’s left?”

A few of the ideas produced by Pixar’s creative team that have subsequently been canned include “Craps,” in which a heroic anthropomorphic blob of feces makes his way through the sewers below New York to find his family, and “Furniture,” in which a wisecracking Ottoman helps a lovable, bumbling recliner win the attention and affection of the coffee table, his romantic interest across the room.

Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple and former chief executive of Pixar, said he got out at just the right time when he sold the company to Disney earlier this year in a stock swap. “I saw the writing on the wall,” Jobs said. “From now on, I’m going to concentrate on flooding the market with NanoPods instead of ‘toons.”